We spent a month in Kanab, Utah. It was a great location to live, and a perfect basecamp for the nearby national parks. While we lived here, we visited Zion NP, the Grand Canyon North Rim, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP a couple more times, and a whole list of other trails, parks and hidden gems. We toured Page AZ, including Horseshoe Bend and Glen Canyon. We even saw dinosaur tracks!

As usual, the closer we get to leaving, the more we pack into the schedule. We made our list of must-sees early in the month, and time started dwindling before we were ready. With that in mind, we made a trek out to see the nearby sand caves. These are man-made caves, where sand was “mined” out of the soft cliff face to create a small maze of tunnels.

I would count this as the stupidest thing we did while we were here. If we were two able-bodied adults, it would have been no problem. Instead, I’m five months pregnant and Kyle had a toddler in the carrier on his back. The hike to the sand cave involves a rock scramble up a sandy sloped rock face, then walking across the side of the butte to the caves. Sand makes it slippery. Kyle climbed up, and then said he didn’t feel comfortable going further. That was the right call.

I was determined to get photos of the sand caves. There was one section where I had to sit on my butt and crab-crawl my way across a slippery rock face, since there were no footholds. There was a scared young kid right in front of me who kept stopping, which meant I had to suddenly stop and use every single finger to grip the rocks so I wouldn’t slide down. It wasn’t dangerous, I wouldn’t have slid very far, but I probably would not have made it to the caves if I couldn’t cross this section. About halfway across, my camera bumped the rocks and my lens cap bounce-bounce-rolled right off the cliff. Crap. The photo below is from my return trip – as you can see, not dangerous, but not easy.

After I made it through that section it was an easy walk to the sand caves. The exterior was gorgeous, like someone high up on the cliff had spilled red paint that dripped its way down.

After all that effort, I took about two photos before my low battery warning started flashing. I quick snapped a few more and then made my way back to Kyle. The interior formations were really cool, lots of soft swirls and curves.

I was pretty stressed about crossing that difficult section again, but I was alone on it when I returned. Since I didn’t have to stop and grip the slippery rock, it was easy to get across. Thank goodness! I met up with Kyle and Atlas again, and they slid back down to the ground, then I followed.

Down on the ground again, I was stoked to locate my lens cap. Technically this is my backup lens cap, as I’ve already lost the original (somewhere in the truck, I know it’s not gone forever!). A pleasing way to wrap up a tough hike!

Another hike we’ve been hoping for is the trek out to The Wave, which is a gorgeous rock formation. The hike itself is about 7 miles and is somewhat difficult. Unfortunately, this is a permitted hike, and the permits are very limited. We spent the first half of the month conditioning ourselves for a hike of this magnitude, and then in the second half of November we had very few sunny warm days. The only viable weather was during Thanksgiving weekend. Since permits are distributed on a lottery basis, I think there were so many applicants we just never won the permit lottery. That was a real bummer.

When we were really bored and needed to get out of the camper, we drove the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary loop. Best Friends is the largest no-kill shelter in the US, and its short loop of road is also very beautiful. We usually saw mule deer while we meandered through. We stopped at the wind chime garden as well.

One of the off-the-beaten-path activities that Kyle wanted to do was drive Skutumpah Road. This is real back-country Utah, with no cell service and no pavement. Soon after we started our drive, we recognized the very southern end of Bryce Canyon National Park – there’s no mistaking those hoodoos!

We’d been hoping to hike a slot canyon during our visit to southern Utah, and Willis Creek slot canyon was right along this road. We parked and geared up for a hike. Unfortunately, Willis Creek was running high, and covered in a layer of thin ice. There wasn’t a dry shoreline we could follow, and the ice was too thin to risk hiking on top of the ice. This was a no-go.

This was an incredibly rough road. We were averaging 15mph. Our truck’s suspension is made for hauling a camper, without a trailer it’s a rough ride in our truck. That wouldn’t usually matter, but I’ve got a big baby belly bouncing around and it was uncomfortable. Our plan had been to u-turn and take Skutumpah Road back to Kanab, but when we got to the end I was looking for a different option. We could take the paved road back north past Bryce Canyon (2+ hours) or we could take Cottonwood Canyon Road (another unpaved backroad, probably 1 hour?). We decided to try out Cottonwood Canyon Road. We stopped at Grosvenor Arch for lunch.

The small bit of Cottonwood that we drove to get to Grosvenor Arch was extremely rough. I didn’t want to backtrack, but not knowing what the rest of Cottonwood Canyon Road looked like…it was a gamble. Truly, the scenery was magnificent and every mile seemed to bring a complete change in landscape. However, I was extremely uncomfortable. We were crawling along at 10-15 miles an hour and I was no longer having a good time.

I was overjoyed to make it back to a paved road. Skutumpah and Cottonwood would have been a lot of fun under different circumstances.

Speaking of this baby belly, we’ve been working on where to get a 20-week ultrasound while traveling. At first I thought the only affordable option would be Mexico, but after looking around I found a company called Radiology Assist that had VERY affordable prices. The problem was location. They weren’t sure if I had to go to Las Vegas or Phoenix.

We are ready to move on from Kanab, but Vegas and Phoenix are in opposite directions, so we have to get that sorted out before we could even begin to make travel plans. We finally got an appointment in Phoenix, and with that, we started the countdown.

On our last day in Kanab we made one more quick stop. When we first arrived, we went to the Belly of the Dragon tunnel. It just looks like a basic hole in the side of a cliff, but the way the sandstone is carved out makes for some amazing silhouette photos. It was also a nice way to bookend our time in Kanab.

After our initial visit, I really wanted to get some maternity photos there, but I had to wait until my belly got a little bigger. This was our last chance, and I absolutely love this shot! I call it “(Baby) Belly of the Dragon!”

Alright, it’s officially time. We need to find somewhere warm enough that we don’t have to disconnect the water every night to prevent a frozen, burst line. We need to go somewhere with home improvement stores so we can finally get hot water back to the kitchen sink (which broke a month ago at a campground with super high water pressure).

Let’s see if we remember how to hitch up this camper and hit the road. We’re heading south!